[News] Palestinians break Israel's wall

[Anti-Imperialist News]

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Palestinians break Israel's wall

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/11/2009119151639325464.html

Palestinians and foreign activists have torn down 
segments of Israel's separation wall in a 
demonstration marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In the town of Qalandiya in the occupied West 
Bank, a group of masked activists using a lorry 
pulled down a two-metre cement block before 
Israeli security forces confronted them with tear gas grenades.

Several of the estimated 50 demonstrators passed 
through the hole they had made, hoisting a 
Palestinian flag and setting ablaze tyres on the other side.

Protesters were wearing shirts with the text 
"Jerusalem we are coming", which was the slogan for the protest.

Abdullah Abu Rahma, leader of the People's 
Campaign to Fight the Wall, said: "Today we 
commemorate 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

"This is the beginning of the activities, which 
we do, to express our hold on our land, and our 
refusal to this wall - the wall of torture, the wall of humiliation."

Activists have vowed to hold a week of protests 
in the Palestinian territories and around the 
world, including a campaign calling for the 
release of all anti-wall activists currently imprisoned.

Last Friday, Palestinian youths almost toppled a 
segment of wall using a hydraulic car-jack in the West Bank village of Nilin.

Regular protests

Protests against the wall have become a regular 
event in Nilin and in the nearby village of 
Bilin, where Palestinian, international and 
Israeli activists are commonly confronted by tear 
gas and rubber bullets fired by Israeli troops.

Israel began building its barrier, consisting of 
fences and walls, in 2002, citing security reasons.

The wall is up to 8m high in places, twice the 
height of the former Berlin wall. Palestinian 
sources anticipate that it may be more than 
750km-long when construction is finished, more 
than four times the length of the Berlin wall.

Palestinians say the route of the wall has been 
set in such a way that it grabs land that could 
have been included in a future Palestinian state.

The International Court of Justice, in a 
non-binding decision in 2004, said the 
Israeli-built barrier was illegal and should be 
taken down because it crossed into occupied territory.

A report by Stop the Wall, a Palestinian 
coalition of NGOs opposed to the wall, said that 
in 2007 alone, Israel demolished more than 160 
houses and appropriated more than 3sq km of land 
in the Palestinian West Bank in its construction of the wall.
***********************************************
Four years of demonstrating against the Wall in southern Bethlehem

http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7513
24.10.09 - 20:00

Bethlehem / PNN – During the demonstration 
marking four years of popular resistance in 
southern Bethlehem, the march zigzagged through the village of Al Ma’sara.

The territory of the southern Bethlehem villages 
is being steadily confiscated for the Wall and 
the expansion of the Efrat Settlement and the 
roads that go along with an increasing settler 
population. Six villages are being cut off from 
reasonable access to the city just to the north.

Foreign and Israeli activists joined the march 
after noon prayers in solidarity with 
Palestinians. The group held signs and called to 
achieve national goals, such as a state, Jerusalem, and the Right of Return.

Demonstrators headed toward the Wall in a 
symbolic effort to reach their lands on the other 
side. But as usual for this weekly march, they 
found Israeli soldiers and rolls of razor wire in their path.

On the spot organizers Mahmoud Zwahra and 
Mohammed Brajiya both delivered speeches, along 
with other officials. They talked about the right 
of the Palestinian people to resist occupation, 
stressing that demonstrations like Fridays would 
continue until justice was achieved.

The events of the past years were reviewed, 
including the early stages of the local 
resistance. Demonstrators made a move to remove 
the razor wire laid across the road in their 
path, resulting in several beatings by Israeli soldiers.

A memorial was also held for Qaher Mousa Aladdin, 
a member of the Popular Committee against the 
Wall who was killed in a road accident while filming a documentary on the Wall.





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